How to grow your own Gin and Tonic - Sustainable Drinking
Spring has sprung! It’s official. Today is the first day of spring. Which means it's finally another attempt at growing my own produce. And you should be trying too! Okay, so maybe you can’t grow your very own gin and tonic. However nice that would be. On the other hand, what we can do, is grow the garnishes we use to better our gin and tonic. Even without a garden, even with the lack of sun that we have to deal with here in the UK. And with recent events causing everyone to self-isolate themselves (click here for more on that). You’re going to need something to keep yourself busy. Keep the O’nogging occupied.
Not to mention, alot of us are working from home now. Now i’m not saying i endorse drinking on the job. However, if you are going to day drink, atleast have some class about it. Think of the bragging rights alone. When someone comes round “Fancy a gin and tonic with fresh rosemary from my balcony?” in the bar “Oh yeah, this gin and tonic is nice, but not as good as my home grown ginger gin and tonic” You can be that pretentious Gin lover everyone hates but also wants to be.
Before we get into this lets just cover some basics of why this is necessary, other then quarantine craft and the fact that coronavirus might leave us all on lock down in dire need of a new hobby.
A Gin and tonic is more then the Gin
In recent years we have seen an immense growth from the gin category. UK distilleries have doubled in the past 2 years thanks to the gin bloom. People hold more respect for gin today then they had 5 years ago.
You don’t just want any old Gin anymore, you want a specific brand, your favourite brand. Something citrus forward, spicy, floral. You want gin from a specific place, Scottish gin, English gin, something local to your city. More and more peoples demands for gin get more specific.
However, its good to note that in a double gin and tonic, the gin makes up less then a quarter of your drink. It's pretty counter productive to spend extra money on getting the perfect craft gin when you’re just going to dilute it with a less then crafty tonic. Because of this, we are starting to see an influx in new tonic suppliers popping up. But what about the garnish? An un-garnished gin and tonic is an unfinished gin and tonic.
Garnishes add more than just flavour, they add aroma, they add a look of appeal. Take any old gin and any old tonic, mix them together and stick a rose petal in. automatically you have yourself a floral gin and tonic, it tastes subtly of rose, it smells fragrant, perfumed. The look alone takes you to a grandma’s garden in the midst of spring. I would argue the garnish is the most important part of the drink. I challenge you to argue otherwise. What's Hendricks without its cucumber? Saucing out that perfect spicy gin just to squeeze a healthy dose of lime into it is just going to turn it citric. Whats the point? We have had the time of gin growth, we are in the time of tonic growth. We need to prepare for the growth in garnishes. See what i did there? growth? garnishes? growing garnishes? bad pun, i know.
So, we might not be able to grow our own gin, or our own tonic for that matter. But we can control the look, smell and end taste. From seed to glass. With the help of garnishes, and what we choose to garnish with is how we define our gin and tonic.
This is also a step towards full self grown and made ingredients. It starts with your gin and tonic garnish, next your growing mint for your Mojito, then your crafting your own syrups, infusing spirits, creating cordials, all with home grown produce. Healthy and sustainable. The future of drinking.
Sustainable drinking
As soon as plants are picked, they immediately start to lose flavour and die. I tested this out. Take the humble sprig of mint. I bought both - packaged mint sprigs and planted mint sprigs. I then made two Gin and tonics, I plucked the same amount of mint leaves from both, 3 leaves. Gave them a quick slap. Not because I didn't like them but to break the vines and release the essential oils within the leaves and dumped them into two gin and tonics, stirred and taste tested.
The results?
Packaged Mint gin and tonic - With only using three leaves the mint taste wasn’t massively apparent. Don’t get me wrong, i could taste mint. But not hugely. Id have had to pack the glass pretty full to get the real mint flavour I wanted. In which case, I’d be constantly frustrated about sucking up little bits of mint leaf. The flavour i did get also tasted more earthy then minty. Don’t get me wrong, there was an aroma and taste of mint there. It just wasn’t hugely present. On to the next gin and tonic.
Fresh mint Gin and tonic - With only three leaves this gin and tonic was far mintier. The smell, of which the prior was barely existent, was very apparent in this one. And the mint taste was just so much fresher. Also, the look was more appealing, the leaves where brighter and seemed more lively, whilst in the previous the leaves were browning and just kinda, curled up in each other.
Freshness is important. It’s one easy thing to do to immensely improve the taste of not just your gin and tonic, but any dish prepared by a chef, right? We know that. But this is about sustainability, so what impact does the none home growing option have on sustainability you ask?
Fossil fuels
Not all your food is grown here and near to where you live, alot of it is transported from far and wide. The energy cost of all this transportation can be massive.
Pesticides and fertilisers
What exactly are these mass producers of “fresh” produce spraying on them to make them grow faster and bigger? to be able to meet the demand. I sure as hell don’t know, do you? I cant even pronounce half the stuff. When you grow your own plants you know exactly whats going onto them. You have full control over the process from start to end. So say goodbye to your London dry gin and artisan tonic garnished with fresh rosemary and pesticide.
Packaging
Think of all the plastic that keeps your fresh herbs wrapped up and safe whilst sitting on the super market shelf. Unsurprisingly alot of packaging goes into produce. And its not just the end packaging you see, its the boxes used in transport aswell. Thats alot of waste right their. Not very environmentally friendly. When you grow your own ingredients the only wastage you have is the packet the seeds come in.
Above - Cayenne peppers grown from my balcony
A feeling of pride
Amour propre as the french say. a sense of one's own worth; self-respect. The feeling of satisfaction you get from planting a seed, watering it and checking in on it everyday. Feeling the sense of despair after 2 weeks when nothing has happened even though google assured you leaves would start to sprout after 3 days. The feeling of glee when you finally see a leaf appear. Its crazy how relaxing growing can be. Especially considering the fact you don't even have to do that much, except wait. Then to add that to a gin and tonic. No skill required, little preparation, just wash it and throw it in, there you have it. Your very own gin and tonic, YOUR gin and tonic, home grown. It’s a special feeling.
Above - Home grown city centre beetroot, proudest day ever
What if I don’t have a garden?
Good question, you need sunshine and space to grow right? Its all well and good when you have a garden to be able to let nature loose on your plants. But for people like myself, city dwellers. You don’t have that benefit. But not to fear! A good window or for those lucky folk like myself, a balcony (no matter how small) will do the job.
It just so happens that most plants you would want to grow for garnishing your gin and tonic, happen to be plants you can easily grow indoors.
Here is a list of a few plants that make for great gin and tonic garnishes that you can grow indoors…
Mandarin Oranges
Tomatoes
Lemons
Mint
Ginger
Rosemary
Parsley
Basil
Thyme
Sage
Chillies
Strawberries
lavender
Whats the best way to go about garnish growing?
Honestly, the best way is to just follow the package instructions. Which is why i’m not going to individually tell you my recommendations on how to grow each of the above things. Nothing i say will offer you more guidance than the guidance on a seed packet. When I first started to grow my own drink ingredients, i would buy a packet of seeds that i wanted to grow, discourage the package instructions and take to the internet to find out the actual best way to go about growing them.
That was a mistake. Unless you have specifics that aren’t covered on the instructions. Such as, they recommend a certain temperature and you have no way of finding out what the temperature is in your growing environment. In that case you can resort to the good old internet search. Otherwise, just follow the instructions, or you might end up like i did spending forever trying and failing to grow gherkins before i eventually managed to grow one singular wonky gherkin
Above - 3.5 months of gherkin growing, one singular successful gherkin, proudest day ever once more
Luckily we are now in the beginning of spring, which means damn near every supermarket or home and garden shop will be selling growing equipment. You can pick up an array of seeds, compost, pots of all sizes, and plant food from Wilko for under £10 for example. Although everyone is stockpiling cleaning supplies, loo roll, canned goods, milk and just about anything dried at the moment. No one seems to be stockpiling gardening stuff. More fool them, I say.
Don’t feel discouraged about buying young plants to plant at home. When you start out you most likely will have your heart set on growing from a seed, but trust me. You still get plenty of satisfaction from taking an already grown plant, re-potting it and waiting for new fruits or herbs to appear. I was in the same bout with my love hate relationship against strawberries. I tried and tried to grow my own strawberries from my window sill to no success. Very frustrating. In the end i figured i’d “cheat” and buy a small strawberry plant to re-pot at home and boy oh boy let me tell you. I never thought i’d get so excited over seeing a strawberry grow as i did.
The fact these seeds and plants are so easy to pick up is a reason i’ve only listed a few of my recommendations. Half the fun is working out what your going to grow and what gin and tonic it will pair with. My advice, grow an array of different things in the beginning. Let the smell and the look of them inspire you so when its time to garnish, you know just what gin and what tonic to use them for.
So what are you waiting for? It’s spring, you’re one day late already. Get yourself out, stock up on your pots, compost and seeds and grow yourself some gin and tonic garnishes for ultimate gin and tonic satisfaction.